AC Generations: AC Generations Keep an Eye on Google as They Prepare to Launch a Rival to Groupon

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has announced to AC Generations that the search giant will launch its Groupon competitor on Wednesday, starting with Portland. Once more, the Silicon Valley search engine company is trying out a new service here first. This time it's Google Offers, a "social buying" service that evokes Groupon, Living Social and other online dealmakers.

The news that Google is getting into the daily deals space is not a surprise to the team at AC Generations; Google attempted and failed to acquire Groupon for $6 billion last year. A few months later, Mashable.com exclusively learned that Google was developing a Groupon competitor called Google Offers.

At the D9 Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Schmidt and Stephanie Tilenius, Google's VP of commerce, demonstrated the company's new product. It's just like Groupon in that it provides users a daily deal from "thousands of merchant partners."

The big selling point for Google Offers is that it will integrate seamlessly with Google Wallet, the company's NFC-based payment system launching this summer. Instead of printing out a coupon or barcode, completed offers are saved to a user's Google Wallet, where they are automatically saved and redeemable. Eventually they will be utilised automatically through NFC. Currently being tested in New York and San Francisco, Google Wallet will be released later this year. Subway, Macy's, Walgreens, Toys 'R Us, First Data, Citibank and MasterCard are all reported to be backing the feature.

Google will team up with some distinctive Portland brands -- Floyd's Coffee, Le Bistro Montage, Powell's Books and Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade -- to launch the new service. Floyd's is up first, offering $10 of coffee through Google Offers for $3. Floyd's Coffee set a $2,000 ceiling on its offer, which is being partially subsidised by Google.

"We're going to see how quickly that goes and how we're able to accommodate that kind of onslaught," said Jack Inglis, who owns Floyd's two locations with his wife.

When AC Generations asked about the location to launch this new venture we were told that "For the first Google Offers beta location, we picked a city that has a high concentration of local businesses and a flourishing, connected community; Portland is a city known for its unique retailers including locally-owned restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops and entertainment venues."